Save Article

Terrible Textbooks

By

Christopher Shea

Jan 13, 2011 5:42 pm ET

Virginia has been embarrassed by the discovery of numerous errors in two new elementary-school history textbooks—most famously a claim that “thousands of Southern blacks fought in the Confederate ranks, including two black battalions under the command of Stonewall Jackson.”

The state Board of Education has just taken the first step toward removing the books from Virginia schools, and it plans to review other books purchased from Five Ponds Press, which published “Our Virginia: Past and Present” and “Our America: To 1865.”

After spending some time with “Our Virginia,” the historian Michael O’Malley concludes that the main problem isn’t factual errors, of which he spotted many. It’s that the book has no argument. …